Chapter III: Dear Enemy

Is this what dying was like? Fang couldn't help but wonder. Pain was rocketing through every part of him...everything was spinning... was dying this painful? The only person that ever talked about death was Iggy... he was always very calm about it. He said it could happen at anytime so we couldn't just go around fearing it. He said he wasn't afraid of it. Now that Fang thought about it... it wasn't that bad. Not really... He felt a wave of warm sleepiness wash over him. Death was just the next great adventure... wasn't that it? Something of that sort... he hoped it was true. He would like to have a nice adventure after he died...Why were his ears ringing... wait, was it just his ears?

Bleep...Bleep...Bleep...Bleep...Bleep...Bleep...Bleep...Bleep

No, that wasn't just in his head he decided, but all the same he paid it no mind. He was dying after all... more important things to think about...

It's funny how calm he felt. Dying was suppose to be this big momentous thing and yet... he felt nothing. No resentment or regret at least...

An image of Max flickered across his vision.

So one actually... not bad. Fang relaxed a bit, and then realized he couldn't move. How perplexing. He tried to open his eyes, but no luck... sad, he would have liked to be looking at something when he died... was it just him or was the ringing getting faster?

Bleep-Bleep-Bleep-Bleep-Bleep

Yes, it was definitely faster. Hey, it was louder too. Fang felt his senses heightening. The pain was getting worse, definitely worse.

"I think- I think he's coming to."

"Your kidding, he's been out of it for two weeks."

"No, I'm not kidding. See that line? That's his heart rate, it's- it's racing!"

Voices now too? Those definitely weren't in his head, this- this wasn't what dying was suppose to be like. This wasn't suppose to happen like this. Fang felt his heart thumping madly. Death, it was coming, right? He was going to die, right? Fang felt a tiny prick in his arm and just like that, everything was gone.

—Two Hours Later—
Fang's eyelids fluttered as he came back to his senses. His first thought was, he wasn't dead. Fang felt himself relax slightly, that had to be good, that he wasn't dead. After all being alive had it's advantages. He blinked rapidly, taking the room in all at once. It was very brightly lit and a rather vivid shade of white. Dots flickered before his eyes from the stark brightness of the room. As his mind began to calm questions buzzed in the back of his mind.

How did I get here? Where was here? But those mattered little, for immediately a more important question arose in his mind...

Why aren't I dead?

Fang couldn't help but wonder if some higher power saved him... or perhaps it was sheer luck... then a thought struck him like a blow to the chest, maybe he hadn't been dying.

Bleep, Bleep, Bleep

That sound was still here? Fang looked for the sound of the obnoxious noise. He looked to his left, then right, where he found the culprit. Next to the bed he was lying in was a rather bulky machine, little green lines ran across it turning into peaks and valleys as they cut through the screen. Each time there was a peak, the machine bleeped. There were numerous wires running in and out of it and that made Fang realized, for the first time, there was a needle in his arm. He eyed inquisitively. From the needle ran a tube and that tube came from a pouch of clear liquid next to him. He reached out to touch the pouch, perhaps find out why this liquid was being put in his body but he faltered. Both of his forearms were heavily bandaged in gauze. By the looks of it the bandages also needed to be changed soon as they were damp with his blood. Fang looked to the table by his bed; there was a paper with his name on it. He leaned over and stretched out is arm, grasping the paper with his index and middle finger as an audible gasp came from the doorway.

Fang dropped the paper as he looked to the direction of the disturbance; in the doorway was a girl who seemed to be about his age. She had wavy pinkish-red hair knotted in the back of her head, her face was slightly girlish but her demeanor was not. She wore a knee length lab coat, rectangular glasses and carried a clipboard with her. Fang waited for her to do something, to see if she was friend or foe, but she just continued to stare at him as if he was the living dead. Fang sort of awkwardly waved at her, cringing when there was a great clang from her fallen clipboard. She scurried to pick it up and quickly hurried out of his line of vision. Seeing that she was gone, he went back to the paper he had been about to read, but much to his displeasure, it had fallen to the floor. Seeing he couldn't possibly reach it he laid back down on the white linen sheets. This place had to be a hospital, but if they'd already done all this for him why hadn't they run to the government? That was what any other hospital would have-

"We're not any other hospital."

Fang looked in the door, the girl was back. "How did you...?" He asked, confounded that she had answered one of the questions he had asked himself. "Read your mind? The School's effects aren't always on the outside." She said casually, now that she had gotten over the initial shock he was living, she seemed more confident. "The School?" Fang sputtered in a hoarse whisper, could she really be- "Oh, I am there's no doubt about that." She said equally casually. All Fang could do was gape, this girl had answered all of his questions. "Quite a magnificent skill isn't it?" She said, gracefully sitting on the chair nearest to his bed. She waited not for the answer but continued on. "You will undoubtedly want to know exactly what happened, will you not?" She did not wait for the answer.

"I think we may need to start a bit... farther back then two weeks ago-"

"Two weeks ago!"

"Yes, now let me continue." Fang sulked greatly at this, but listened anyways.

"Three months to this day, the School got a new grant. The word has been it was over 6.2 million, but that is only a guess. The grant came from a wealthy retired man who now sponsors both the Institution and the School, without so much as a two week notice they had purchased a new building, hired new staff and started a new project or two. I believe you met one of them. Shadows they're called. Well anyways, we were left with this old building and a few old wheezing smokers. Turned out to be fair doctors, caring for out mutant needs and such. About three weeks ago the old geezers just disappeared. Well except for Arty and Fin, but they were the oldest of the lot.

"Of course we stayed, we had no where to go, but we picked up on a few things. All the old experiments are here, even the Erasers-"

"Erasers!" Fang gasped, Erasers had always been a favorite creature of the School, why wouldn't they take them to the new building?

"Yes, we also reside here." Came a cold voice, Fang didn't even have to look, he knew this man was an Eraser.

"Ah! Daggy, how kind of you to joins us!"

"Get on with the yarn you were spinning, I should rather like to hear the ending."
"Very well then, so we've been here for about three weeks with only Arty and Fin for guidance. I expect they'll die any day now... but then again they're still kicking. But that's not the point. We, especially the Erasers, have been a bit...er, desperate to join the ranks of the Shadows. That's why when Daggy-"

"Dagan to you, boy." The Eraser growled.

"Same thing, when Dagan and Arthemus went to that concert and saw you, they bagged you. Thought they'd get on old Jeb's good side by doing that, but of course they were attacked by the Shadows on their way to the Laboratory. When they found out that the Shadows had been sent by the Lab to kill them... well they got a little angry and discarded you in order to properly attack them. Your friend, the blind one, witnessed all of this and, as we gathered, told you what was happening. When you launched yourself at Arth he threw you from him and that's where we come to your current state." She gestured to the bleeping machine beside Fang. He nodded heavily, letting her continue on.

"You landed directly on the joint of your wings, and you subsequently fractured the vertebrae."

"When you were down, a Shadow decide... decide to... to kill you." She waited for either of her companions to speak. Neither took the chance. In fact Dagan looked rather pleased at the discomfort of the girl.

"It slashed you arms with it's claws... then it put it's paws on your chest and tried to... suffocate you. Because of the harm that caused for your lungs and heart, not to mention your back trauma, you slipped into..." She was unwilling to speak. Fang couldn't help but notice she looked nervous, she kept glancing at Dagan who muttered something sounding very close to "coma".

"Yes, that's right. A coma. And well... here we are." She threw in a chuckle half-heartedly. Fang then asked the question that had been on his mind the entire time.

"When will I get better?"

"Erm, that's- that's a matter that um, Daggy should handle."

"Put the blame on me why don'tcha!"

"Daggy. Daggy, please?"

"Fine, fine. We pulled up your files, you're 2 bird-"

"The other 98 percent human of course."

"What did you expect him to be? Pig?" Dagan said gruffly, "Because your 2 bird your healing will be quicker than the usual. We would usually expect your injuries to heal in about 6-16 weeks-"

"But I need to get back-"

"Let me finish, we would expect a normal person with your injuries to completely heal in 6-16 weeks, but because of your bird DNA we can anticipate you healing at 3-5 weeks." The man continued on,

"You will probably be able to get out of bed in a week or so. When you've fully recovered you may have... a bit of a limp. Shouldn't bother you at all..."
Dagan drained on for a good half hour or so before the pink haired girl stopped him. "Dag, you should go make rounds. I'll stay here for a bit." She practically shoved him out the door, shutting it with a loud swish. "God he's a prat, isn't he?" She smiled weekly, returning to her chair. "I guess I should introduce myself, I'm Angela." She stuck out her hand, which he gingerly shook with the awkward bandages wound around his palm. "Can I ask you something?" He said as she watched the machine next to him. "Yes, go ahead." She said airily.

"Have you- have you tried to contact my friend?"

"Oh... oh, we tried but... they never answered us back."

"They, they didn't?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Did you tell them I was...sick"

"Yes, we did...but they never sent us a reply."

"I- I see." His voice quivered. He jerked his shoulders to the away so Angela would not see his silent tears.

It's up! This chapter is the begining of a very important time for Fang. The next chapter will be up about the same time next week (unless I forget, if I do I apologize ahead of time). There will be two more stories following this (not exactly sequels... not companions... I don't know what to call them) so if you guys want to submit a few ideas for those, I wouldn't object.(Not for this one tho, because like I said I already have chapter ten in the bag). A hint about the future though... one of my makeups in this chapter will be very important further on...

MyWishIsOfTheNight: Thank you! I love your penname btw, very origninal.

xPockyNoMikox: The website is if you click the messageboards then go to fanfiction mine will be up there. Anyways, I love a well rounded review! I agree, the chapters are a bit short and fast paced in the begining but just wait, they'll get much longer. And romance? Oh yes I cannot write a story without romance! Max and Fang? Well... we'll just have to wait and see.